Doctor Who Series 4, Episode X Review: Voyage of the Damned

What did you think of this episode?

• Sonic!
• Good!
• Bumpy-wumpy!
• Exterminate!

13.31 million viewers. Crumbs!! That was some good going!! Doctor Who was reaching its peak cultural moment, certainly in the modern version anyway!! Do you think we will ever reach a point like this again? I struggle to think that we will. Not because the show is shit, because time have changed, people have changed, the world has changed. You also need to put into account that the show has been around 19 years now in its modern form, nearly 61 in total, and that is a long old time to keep people interested. Oh and people are still interested in the show, despite what some people might say.

You know, sell out Royal Albert Hall two times, fill cinemas, and I would love to know the viewing figures for the new series now!!

I am being spiteful - here is my review of Voyage of the Damned.

"You dreamt of another sky. New sun, new air, new life. A whole universe teeming with life. Why stand still when there’s all that life out there."

I think casting Kylie Minogue might have helped add a couple of million to the figures as well. Kylie has certainly aged a hell of a lot better than me over these past 17 years!!

Luckily for us, Kylie can act. Which is a relief, as Doctor Who has cast people who can't in the past, naming no names!!

This is Doctor Who daring to go big, and it worked!! Some of the shots of the Titanic in space still hold up to this day, it really was an epic episode! The episode itself is very similar to The Poseidon Adventure (but in space, and with angels taking peoples heads off) and this was a film that traumatised me as a kid, combined with Jaws, I really never, ever wanted to go near an ocean.

"Now human beings worshipped the great god Santa, a creature with fearsome claws, and his wife Mary. And every Christmas Eve, people of UK go to war with the country of Turkey. They then eat the Turkey people for Christmas dinner. Like savages!"

There was a lot of death in this one. Not just random extra deaths, but major characters. Those poor old Van Hoff's, not to mention Bannakaffalatta!!

Didn't this episode get a lot of criticism for all the religious imagery? Come on guys, we all know the Doctor is the true God.

This has RTD Christmas all over it. Epic, fun, tragic. Some silly moments, and of course the Doctor getting a bad ass moment.

"I’m the Doctor. I’m a Time Lord. I’m from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I’m nine hundred and three years old. And I’m the man that’s going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?"

I did find the Astrid ending a bit painful to watch. Not because it was sad, more for the fact a slow moving forklift pushing a slow moving box with wheels and a head in, in slow motion was just Doctor Who at its corny best!!

Not many shows has deaths like that do they? Russell had to get rid of Kylie somehow though, so what better way than a forklift accident. Obviously Kylie was never going to travel with the Doctor, but the writing was on the wall for her not long into the episode when you watch it again. Lots of talk of escaping, adventures with the Doctor, no way was Russell going to let us think she lived happily ever after.

Without sounding like a cruel bugger, I wish some companion 'deaths' were like this. Final! When the Doctor gives her a kiss and tells her she is flying, that is some good shit.

Talking of corny shit, I always have a chuckle at the Queen bit. God I love this show!!

RATING: Sonic!

BEST LINE: "You're not falling, Astrid. You're flying."

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